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Wayfarer

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It's not a personal issue. It is physicalism that I'm critical of, not you in particular. See response above.
November 22, 2025 at 20:49
I well aware of physicalist claims, and that is a good description of it. One of Charles Pinter's central arguments in Mind and the Cosmic Order is th...
November 22, 2025 at 20:42
Say what you will about Mamdani. but he must a world class ass kisser.
November 22, 2025 at 10:21
I do see your point and there is a sense in which the brain is a physical organ which can be physically damaged, But in context the implication was th...
November 22, 2025 at 08:45
As always :wink:
November 22, 2025 at 07:02
Need I point out that this is not the Physics Forum?
November 22, 2025 at 06:59
Well asked. :up:
November 22, 2025 at 06:55
You keep telling me what I'm not grasping, so I'll return the favour. The reason that the mind is not an object like those of physics or chemistry is ...
November 22, 2025 at 05:26
(Armstrong quote) Do you know why I would not agree? I’ll recap - because it treats ‘mind’ as being on par with ‘the objects of physics and chemistry’...
November 22, 2025 at 04:46
Keep coming! You're getting close!
November 22, 2025 at 04:02
Very different subject matter but a well - regarded book. Out of print, I Iuckily found an online copy - it ought to download properly book-marked, wh...
November 22, 2025 at 03:48
What about the boxed quote above in support of materialist theory of mind. Do you think it is basically correct? Or if not what’s wrong with it? And, ...
November 22, 2025 at 03:46
For what it's worth, I don't think the language used in the OP is idiosyncatic or the words have been misused in any way. As noted above, I dropped th...
November 22, 2025 at 03:23
Actually I'll own up, I didn't watch that whole video, but I briefly reviewed it and also his other materials and I'm sure it's bona fide. (Not that I...
November 22, 2025 at 03:20
The claim that metaphysics is empty (‘otiose’ was Ayer’s term) is itself a metaphysical claim. That’s basically what sunk the positivists. I think som...
November 22, 2025 at 02:50
But being disposed to do or say something merely describes what someone ls likely to do. It doesn't describe what they ought to do. And it also reduce...
November 22, 2025 at 02:34
Not according to AI https://claude.ai/share/d20fdc96-dfad-44a1-9ef5-cbef895a5819 For clarity’s sake do agree with this depiction of materialism by D M...
November 22, 2025 at 01:40
An instantiation is an instance of something; a rule book is an instantiation of the rules which it describes. A chess game is an instantiation of the...
November 22, 2025 at 01:06
Fair enough. If you could be more specific, I might be able to address your concerns.
November 22, 2025 at 00:20
A good question — but notice something subtle. The objection is framed from an imagined “view from nowhere,” as if we could somehow step outside all p...
November 21, 2025 at 22:16
What you’re overlooking is the distinction between causal explanation and normative explanation. Physicalism gives you causal accounts of how neurons ...
November 21, 2025 at 21:57
It seems Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine is finally about to materialize. He is forcing them to adopt a ‘peace plan’ that basically capitulates to Russian...
November 21, 2025 at 20:06
Worth doing. You don’t have to drill down to all the details for it to be useful.
November 21, 2025 at 09:30
Right! The role of epigenetics.
November 21, 2025 at 08:51
If you read the OP you will see it says no such thing. ‘Let me address an obvious objection. ‘Surely “the world” is what is there all along, what is t...
November 21, 2025 at 08:50
The original post provides ample justification for basic argument, as does a related On Purpose. Although I will grant that 'create' carries connotati...
November 21, 2025 at 02:42
Well, I could say pure mathematics. That’s the obvious case where what is grasped is not “realised” by a physical system in the way you mean. Neverthe...
November 21, 2025 at 02:02
According to 'Clarendon'. Thanks, but I choose my sources carefully. What I mean is - 'what is a "thing?" What does "exist" mean? Does "exist" and "re...
November 20, 2025 at 23:56
Thomas Nagel's 'The Last Word' is devoted to this topic.
November 20, 2025 at 23:52
Yes, well, you asked a question, I answered it. Anything else?
November 20, 2025 at 23:52
No. If I said the meaning of metaphysics was restricted to the meaning in Aristotle's texts, and that it had no other meaning, then it would be. I'm j...
November 20, 2025 at 23:51
It's not 'the etymological fallacy'. Certainly the word 'metaphysics' has acquired many meanings over time but, especially in this case, it's importan...
November 20, 2025 at 23:44
When I did a unit in cog sci we were told of an experiment where kittens were brought up in an environment where all the obstacles were vertical. They...
November 20, 2025 at 23:40
Agree. I believe the Joe Sachs edition is highly regarded. (I had a look - the Joe Sachs edition is not the Penguin Classics edition, which is less ex...
November 20, 2025 at 23:25
The key thing to understand is that it starts with Aristotle. One of the later editors of Aristotle's texts applied the term 'metaphysics' meaning 'af...
November 20, 2025 at 23:21
https://cdn.britannica.com/61/93061-050-99147DCE/Statue-of-Liberty-Island-New-York-Bay.jpg It could also be noted that the derivation of 'world' is fr...
November 20, 2025 at 23:06
They create their world - meaning, they enact or bring forth a meaningful environment through their embodied activity. That is a fundamental point of ...
November 20, 2025 at 22:49
The point is, the OP wasn't generated by AI, on account of it having been published before AI went live (Nov 19th 2022) - but I felt that the AI revie...
November 20, 2025 at 22:32
The original essay and OP were written prior to the advent of large language models - publication date was 4th November 2022, 15 days prior to the lau...
November 20, 2025 at 21:56
Please notice what you are glossing over or assuming in saying this. Philosophers have spent millenia puzzling about the relationships between mind, w...
November 20, 2025 at 21:50
It is based on your not recognising a fundamental distinction going back to David Hume. There is a fundamental philosophical distinction between physi...
November 20, 2025 at 20:10
Of course I accept science, you'd have to be a fool not to. What I don't accept is the attempt to subject philosophical questions to scientific criter...
November 20, 2025 at 08:57
I agree that in practice you can’t do neuroscience without maths, models of inference, and all the conceptual tools scientists rely upon. But that’s a...
November 20, 2025 at 06:38
The point is that norms of reasoning and causal processes belong to different explanatory orders. Physical processes unfold according to causes; reaso...
November 20, 2025 at 03:28
I always value your contributions.
November 20, 2025 at 02:20
I've always liked that passage and its metaphors.
November 20, 2025 at 00:18
Not magical—just not the same kind of thing. My point is that the capacity to grasp reasons, recognise valid versus invalid inferences, and understand...
November 19, 2025 at 23:41
I stand corrected but the basic point remains - the re-interpretation of the Greek 'logos' in theological terminology.
November 19, 2025 at 23:10
There's a through-line, so to speak. I've acquired a textbook on Husserl (David Bell) but haven't made a lot of headway with it. But Husserl's noesis ...
November 19, 2025 at 22:34
That would have been what the ancients designate 'logos'.
November 19, 2025 at 22:13